Keene & Associates Inc. Boosts Stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Keene & Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,515 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,075 shares during the quarter. Keene & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $344,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,880,785 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,336,000 after acquiring an additional 65,691 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 129.5% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 138,011 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,107,000 after buying an additional 77,883 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,616,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $81,401,000 after buying an additional 18,730 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 122.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 45,413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,022,000 after buying an additional 25,027 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its position in Flowers Foods by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 74,153 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,669,000 after acquiring an additional 4,089 shares during the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on FLO shares. StockNews.com upgraded Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Flowers Foods in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Flowers Foods currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

NYSE:FLO opened at $23.17 on Monday. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.64 and a fifty-two week high of $26.12. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $22.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.12. The company has a market cap of $4.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.27, a P/E/G ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its earnings results on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.24 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 2.51%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.33 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.26 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.14%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is 162.71%.

Flowers Foods Profile

Flowers Foods, Inc produces and markets packaged bakery food products in the United States. Its principal products include fresh breads, buns, rolls, snack items, bagels, English muffins, and tortillas, as well as frozen breads and rolls under the Nature's Own, Dave's Killer Bread, Wonder, Canyon Bakehouse, Mrs.